Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Analyze Event Logs using Excel Pivot Table


Juan over at Raymond.cc posted an excellent article on Analyzing Windows Event logs using Excel's Pivot Tables. If you've ever tried tried sifting through a systems Event Logs trying to find a pattern you'll know what a pain in the rear it is.

The article includes a walkthrough on how to export your logs and set up the Pivot Table.
"If you want to troubleshoot a Windows system, definitely you will think about analyzing the event logs from the Event Viewer. Instead of looking at the event logs using Event Viewer, it is advisable that we save the log files as CSV format. After that insert the table in the CSV file, then we can analyze and sort the necessary information with ascending or descending order."
Read Post: Analyze Event Logs using Excel Pivot Table

What are Event Logs?

Event Logs first appeared in Windows NT (1993) allowing the Operation System and Applications to make use of a centralized log service to log events Informational, Warning, Error and Critical events. There are three type of logs which include System, Application, and Security. Windows 2000 introduced the option for 3rd party application to create their own log sources. You can find more information on Event Logs and their history on Wikipedia.

What are Pivot Tables?

Excel Pivot Tables are used to summarize, analyze and visualize data. Pivot Table can sort, count, and total the data in a table and create a new Pivot Table displaying a summary of the data. Pivot Tables get their name from their ability to rotate/pivot on specific fields from the source data and automatically update to show the new information. For a hands on explanation of Pivot Tables visit "Excel Pivot Tables Tutorial : What is a Pivot Table and How to Make one"

Search Amazon.com Books for Excel Pivot Tables

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